Our 2020 Halloween Movie & Cartoon Special Bucket List

Because of COVID-19 we don't know whether or not we'll get to celebrate Halloween this year with Trick or Treating. Since Halloween is a pretty big deal in our house we've decided to celebrate with as many social distancing and self-isolation activities during this spooky time of year. There's nothing quite like watching some Halloween specials or scary movies to get you into the holiday spirit. 

Last year our list was a little too ambitious, so this year we went a little smaller, knowing we can add on extras if we watch all of these. This is what is on our list for this year.

Being Introduced To The Kids This Year

Hocus Pocus✔

None of us have watched this before and we figured it was time it was added to the list.

Practical Magic

I quite like this movie and look forward to watching it with Molly.

Clue

Chris thinks this doesn't count, but as a murder mystery I feel it embodies everything fun about Halloween.

Tim Burton's Batman

Dark, brooding, people dressed up in costumes, what could go wrong?

The Witches

We may end up renting this Roald Dahl new release direct from Cineplex Odeon as a special Halloween treat.

Classic Family Favourites For Repeated Viewing

Nightmare Before Christmas

Ghostbusters

The Wizard of Oz

Molly says this counts as a Halloween movie because it has witches, a scarecrow (for harvest season), and creepy monkeys - it also doesn't hurt that they just added it to Netflix).

Paranorman

Coraline

Coco

Halloween Cartoon Specials

Simpsons Halloween (Seasons I - X)✔✔

Captain Underpants Hackoween Special✔

Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin✔

The Garfield Halloween Special✔

Disney cartoon version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow✔✔

They even managed the Tim Burton Version This Year

✔

For the Grown Ups

The Birds

Never seen this classic and it's about time.

The Craft

Another movie that I haven't seen in many years, but I want to revisit.

The Crow

I haven't watched this since the early 2000's and I'm curious how it holds up.

Jennifer's Body✔

I read an article that this is a fantastic feminist horror flick.

If you have any other suggestions please share them!

To see our list from last year click here.

Family Halloween Movie Bucket List

Halloween is a huge deal in our house.  The minions have caught the Halloween bug from us, perhaps that's because they live in a home that roughly resembles a Tim Burton museum.  This year we even had to put a rule into effect that the kids weren't allowed to talk about their Halloween costumes until at least May.

While we're working hard on our costumes, more on that later, and decking our halls with haunting knickknacks (that happens tomorrow), we're also looking for some Halloween based or haunting inspired movies and TV specials to watch.  So, last night we came up with a list of family favourite Halloween movies to watch, ones we're going to try this year, and ones that are just for the grown-ups.  Enjoy! Also if you have a Halloween movie you love watching with your kids, please share.  I can't wait to add it to our list.

I'm going to check them off as we watch them.

Image via Giphy

Family Favourites We've Watched Before (And Will Watch This Month)

Nightmare Before Christmas
Beetlejuice
Coraline
Goosebumps
Coco✔
Harry Potter (As Many Movies As We Can Manage) I✔
Ghostbusters

Image via Giphy

TV Specials

Garfield Halloween Special✔

It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown✔

As Many Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Specials As Possible

• I✔
• II✔
• III✔
• IV✔
• V✔
• VII✔
• VIII✔
• X✔
• XI✔
• XII✔
• XIII✔
  

Image via Giphy (We miss you Luke Perry!)

New To The Kids Movies We're Going To Try Out For The First Time This Year

Buffy The Vampire Slayer✔
Addams Family (1990's version)✔
Addams Family Values
Practical Magic

Ones The Kids Will Watch (Without Us, Cause, Just No)

Goosebumps 2
Pacman Halloween

Ones We're Going To Try In A Few Years

Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

Image via Giphy

For The Grown-ups

Warm Bodies✔

It✔

Scream
Scream 2✔
Halloween (pretty much as many as we can watch) Halloween (Rob Zombie Film) ✔
Happy Death Day 2 You✔
Zombieland
Zombieland 2